Playerunknown's Battlegrounds test servers climb up

Version 1.0 of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds has once again returned to the test servers. The 100-player Battle Royale ’em up still isn’t ready to launch in full but if you fancy parkouring all over with the new climbing & vaulting system or blasting new guns with a new ballistics model, hey, you have another few days to play around before the test servers shut down again. This week’s test build hasn’t changed much since the last one — and rubberbanding lag still seems a real problem, especially at the start of rounds — but I’ll certainly be rounding up the lads to leap and lark about.The test servers switched back on overnight and will be live until 10am UK time (2am Pacific) on Friday the 1st of December. They offer Squad and Solo modes in first-person and third-person modes on the North American, European, and Asian servers. The test servers use a separate client you will need to download separately – look for Playeruknown’s Battlegounds (Test Server) in your Steam library.

The new test patch notes show that yup, this is mostly the same as the last one. The font is changed again. The compass and some other UI elements are tweaked. And some instability caused by enabling the kill cam is supposedly now fixed. That’s grand, as I do welcome the opportunity to learn from my mistakes (the kill cam replays your death from your killer’s perspective – only visible after your entire squad is death) but it was far too crashy.

The 1.0 test builds in general have been a bit crashy, not to mention laggy. I’m choosing to play on the test servers of a game which is still in early access, so this isn’t a surprise and I’m not upset, but do be aware of that. But hey, one bonus on the technical side is that my framerate seems a lot higher and smoother.

Back in the main version of Plunkbat, developers PUBG Corp will reset the leaderboards again tonight and it won’t track rankings for one day after that. Just so you know.

I am concerned about this change in the new test patch notes:

Improved the red zone bomb sound effects and modified the volume of the explosions

I liked that the new bombs sounded like Armageddon. The deafening booms and thuds gave me the fear, even if I know the red zone has never ever killed anyone ever (and certainly not any full car I was driving). They seem less intense now, which is a shame because I want all sounds to be more like that. Every gun shot should be loud and dreadful too. This stag & hen paintballing weekend has gone wrong for everyone and we should feel terrified any time violence interrupts lads on tour singing the classics.